Three new CEF EBSI Blockchain Use Cases
In May 2020, the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) voted on a set of use cases to be implemented in the second iteration of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI).
Via the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure the European Blockchain Partnership aims to see a Europe where EU-wide cross-border public services use blockchain technology. The European Blockchain Services Infrastructure will be materialised as a network of distributed nodes across Europe (the blockchain), leveraging a number of applications focused on specific use cases. Since 2019, the use cases consisted of: Notarisation, Diplomas, European Self-Sovereign Identity and Trusted Data Sharing.
In the upcoming months, the EBSI team will work on the specifications and technical aspects of three new use cases: SME financing, European Social Security Identification Number and Asylum process management.
These use cases aim to contribute to the EU's goal of digitalising European public administrations. They will further reinforce the goal to establish the digital single market by using methods that are univocally recognised in each Member State, while still ensuring the integrity and resilience of data infrastructure networks and communications.
The three newly selected use cases
For each use case, a Member State led and composed user group is established. These user groups aim to deliver a prototype application on the EBSI blockchain.
SME financing: this use case will create an EU-wide platform for debt financing to open up new sources of (co)-finance political efforts in the area of sustainable economy, innovation and SMEs modernisation. The EBSI-powered public platform will offer services provided by a consortium of private and public entities. Its goal includes facilitating the flow of private financing from capital owners to SMEs or green projects.
European Social Security Identification Number: this use case will aim to prevent fraud or errors by ensuring easier communication and data exchange between European countries and the EU Institutions. The ESSIN will be a process carried out by public authorities providing welfare services to securely analyse the data of EU citizens and guaranteeing a uniform level of service. In addition, it will secure rights portability for citizens between different Member States. It will further be a solution to fight frauds, errors, and duplication of identities.
Asylum process management: this use case will aim to expand the scope of EBSI to a wide range of public sector processes. It will facilitate the management of cross-border and cross-authority processes in dealing with asylum applicants. This use case will use EBSI to securely propagate between the competent asylum authorities process updates and certain process data, and subsequently contribute to the digitalisation of cross-organisational processes.
The European Commission is currently making €3 million available to support the roll-out of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure. You can apply until 25 June 2020.